Page:The Queens of England.djvu/577

 CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK. 523 So gorgeous, indeed, was this coronation, that it would seem as if the king had resolved to make it as magnificent as possible, that he might cause the queen the more acutely to feel the pain of being not only refused her just participation in it but actually shut out from the sight of it. In an account of it written at the. time and attributed — and there can be no doubt justly — -to the author of Waverley, it is stated that the writer saw it with a surprise amounting to astonishment, and never to be forgotten. "The effect," he says, "of the scene in the abbey was beyond measure magnificent. Imagine long gal- leries stretched among the aisles of that venerable and august pile ! Those which rise above the altar pealing back their echoes to a full and magnificent choir of music. Those which occupied the sides filled even to crowding with all that Britain has of beautiful and distinguished ; and the cross gallery most appropriately occupied by the Westminster schoolboys, in their white surplices, many of whom might on that day receive impressions never to be lost during the rest of their lives. Imagine this, I say, and then add the spectacle upon the floor — the altars surrounded by the fathers of the church — the king encircled by the nobility of the land and the counselors of the throne, and by warriors wearing the honored marks of distinction, bought by many a glorious danger ; add to this the rich spectacle of the aisles, crowded by waving plumage, and coronets, and caps of honor, and the sun which bright- ened and gladdened as if on purpose, now beaming in full luster on the rich and varied assemblage, and now darting a solitary ray, which caught, as it passed, the glittering fold of a banner, or the edge of a group of battle-axes or partisans, and then rested full on some fair form, 'the cynosure of neighbor- ing eyes,' whose circlet of diamonds glittered under its influ- ence. "I cannot describe to you the effect produced by the solemn yet strange mixture of Scripture, with the shouts and acclama- tions of the assembled multitude, as they answered to the voice of the prelate who demanded of them whether they acknowl- edged as their monarch the prince who claimed the sovereignty of their presence. It was peculiarly delightful to see the king receive from the royal brethren, but in particular from the Duke of York, the paternal kiss, in which they acknowledged their sovereign. "The young lord of Scrivelsbye— Dymoke the Champion —